


After All

by dadmilkman



Category: DRAMAtical Murder
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-30
Updated: 2014-08-30
Packaged: 2018-02-15 10:30:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2225730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dadmilkman/pseuds/dadmilkman
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A lot can happen in three months, and a lot did. Noiz learned the hard way to think more carefully about his decisions. </p><p>NoizSei spin off after the events of Oval Tower in Noiz's good end.</p>
            </blockquote>





	After All

**Author's Note:**

> i regret dmmd

“Sei, granny says dinner’s ready, if you want to eat.”

“Thank you, I’ll be right down.”

“Oh, what are you reading?”

Sei turned his book over so Aoba could read the cover - it was a chapter book, something about science fiction or fantasy. Sei had been reading those kinds of books lately, and seemed to have formed a small stack of the ones he’d finished at the foot of his bed. Aoba sat down beside Sei on the bed and read a few lines of the page over his shoulder.

“Another one of your mystery books, eh?” Aoba asked, noting the books that littered the room. “You sure have been reading a lot.”

“I bring a lot of them home from the bookstore, so yes. But I had a question, can you help me with this word?”

“Oh?” Aoba asked, leaning forward to see the word Sei was pointing to on the page.

“It looks like anonymous, but . . .  not the same.”

“Oh,” Aoba said, and read the word aloud. “Anomaly. It’s when something is strange or not normal. Like . . .” He paused, trying to think of an example. “Like if you wake up one morning and you’re coil is missing, but you know it was there last night and you always put it on your dresser before bed. That could be an anomaly, it doesn’t make sense for it to be missing. If that helps?”

“Anomaly . . “ Sei said aloud, and then seemed to be reading the word along with the context of the sentence under his breath. “Ah, I understand,” he said after a second. “Thank you, Aoba.”

“No problem,” Aoba said with an awkward smile. He stood and clapped his hand on Sei’s shoulder, and said. “Well I’m gonna be heading out, Koujaku’s waiting downstairs for me. I’ll see you later tonight.”

“Have a good night, Aoba,” Sei said, his eyes back to the book in his hands. And Aoba exited the room.

It always was a little odd whenever Sei asked Aoba for help with something like reading or writing. Well maybe not odd, per se, but it wasn’t something he was used to doing; explaining words in simpler terms, sometimes every day words that seemed obvious.

But it had only been less than four months since Sei had been rescued from Oval Tower, and even still he had a lot of things that were normally considered mundane or common sense to catch up on. Considering not once in the 23 years of his life had he left the tower for anything, there were a lot of things he didn’t know how to do.

Sei didn’t know how to read or write very well, his skill level was that of a young teenager. It wasn’t that he wasn’t intellegent, because Sei was actually very bright, but he had never been taught because there had never been a reason for him to need to learn to read or write. Most of the skills he had he’d taught himself, such as reading and writing. Sei admitted he spent a lot of time practicing both while he had a few days here and there of down time. But Aoba didn’t mind in the least helping Sei learn new things. Aoba and Granny tried to make sure they took him out with them as often as possible - when his health would allow - to give him more exposure to the real world. Sei was fond of the outskirts of the residential district, away from the people and buildings, but frequented a small and seldom visited bookstore in town. Among the few places he knew how to navigate to unassisted, the bookstore was among Heibon Junk Shop and the hospital. He would gather three or four books at a time and take them home, maybe read a chapter or two to decide if it was too difficult, and if not it would most likely be finished in the next few days.

Sei spent a good portion of his time in physical therapy at the hospital and at home. Even three and a half months in the hospital couldn’t help heal him of over twenty years locked up in a tower with mediocre care for his health and well being. He was weak, and even low strain activities had proven difficult. He practiced standing and walking for long periods of time and walking up and down the flight of stairs in Aoba’s house. Sei had been given the spare bedroom for himself rather than sharing a room with Aoba, who was more often than not over at Koujaku’s house a few blocks away. During his free hours he practiced reading, writing, and basic things that he was interested in like math and science, so in between physical therapy and the prescribed ten or more hours of sleep each night his days were fairly full. Sometimes he had the house to himself while Aoba and Tae were both at work, and he would play music and do some light cleaning, which always caused Tae-san to fret over him but he honestly didn’t mind doing.

It was strange, getting used to a new life with new things and people and no boundaries on his freedom or time, but he was taking it all in stride. His health was increasing at a good rate and he even voiced to Aoba that he would like to perhaps look for a job in the future, something easy and stress free that didn’t require any physical labor. Aoba said that Sei could do whatever he pleased, of course, but said that maybe Sei should take a few more months to build his health before he tried to do anything too strenuous. But did mention that maybe a job at the bookstore he liked would suit him, and Sei agreed.

Placing his book open faced down on the bed, he stood and headed down the stairs to where Granny was waiting at the table with a number of plates of food and a quest sitting beside her at the table.

“Mizuki-san,” Sei said, surprised to see him. “I had thought Aoba mentioned you would be stopping by, but I didn’t imagine it was today.”

“It’s just ‘Mizuki’, Sei,” He replied, moving his chair around to make room beside Tae at the table. “And yeah, I just came from the shop. I didn’t know Aoba was going out tonight or I would have waited so we were all together.”

“I rather you would have waited, too,” Tae said under her breath, and Sei’s suspicions for her intolerance of Koujaku’s habit of arbitrary stopping by with no notice applied to Mizuki as well. “You’re lucky I made enough food for three people or you’d be going hungry.”

“Ah, you spoil me Tae-san,” Mizuki said with a smile. “And you know that no one can resists your donuts, which I know you always have.”

“Ha!” She said with a scoff. “So, that’s it. The donuts are easy, it’s the rest of the food that I slave over.”

“And I’m sure it’s all delicious,” He said, eyeing the plates of rice and beef and the bowl of noodles. Rolling her eyes, Tae promptly ended the conversation with a muttered “Aoba’s friends”, at which Mizuki chuckled, and then they blessed the meal and they all began to eat.

Sei had met Mizuki a number of times, and they had been introduced in the hospital after Sei had been admitted for a few weeks. He’d been given a brief story of the events that led up to Aoba infiltrating the tower but never knew most of the details and honestly the less he knew the better; Sei would rather leave the story in the past where it belonged, living on a need-to-know basis.

Mizuki and Tae-san seemed to do well, and there was no apparent bad blood between them, despite the fact that the bandages that Mizuki wore around his neck drew your eyes no matter how hard you tried not to stare. He still kept the smudged remains of his tattoo covered, saying that one day he would have the Morphine tattoo tag removed. He tried not to talk about that often.

Sei had met most of everyone that Aoba had to introduce, including Yoshi and Clara, and even Haga-san and Bonjin-kun at the Junk Shop. Admittedly, though, he didn’t leave the house much and rather his visitors had come either while he was still in the hospital or directly to his and Aoba’s residence.

Mizuki was one his more frequent visitors, having been in the hospital already when Sei had been admitted. He and Sei were released around the same time, although Sei had spent enough time around Mizuki and heard enough from Aoba to admit that maybe he should have stayed in rehabilitation a little longer. Aoba’s failed scrap took a heavy toll on Mizuki’s mind, although he was quickly recovering. He still had relapses on the rare occasion and had frequent nightmares. Aoba tries to get him to spend the night every time he comes over for dinner or to hang out, just to keep an eye on him, but Mizuki is keen and picked up on Aoba after just a few attempts.

“I’m fine, Aoba,” He’d said dismissively but not unkindly. “I can take care of myself.”

And after being told a few times, Aoba let the matter go and begrudgingly took Mizuki’s word for it.

But even as many people as he had met or Aoba had talked about, there was one person that Aoba hadn’t spoken of in quite some time.

Noiz.

Aoba wasn’t alone in infiltrating the tower, and Sei had known of Noiz long before Noiz knew Sei. When Sei was able to transfer his conscious into the network over Oval Tower, he’d know that Noiz was with Aoba. Sei had been able to sense his and Aoba’s presence all throughout the tower, and together, Sei and Noiz had disabled enough security for the three of them to escape intact before Sei had collapsed the tower.

Once Sei and Noiz were both recovering in the hospital they’d been given a proper introduction, but after that they only met a few other times. Noiz was in the hospital for around six weeks before he was well enough to be released, after which he promptly challenged Aoba to a Rhyme match and then disappeared. For a few days Aoba was so distraught, wondering what had happened to him and why he’d suddenly gone missing. No calls or messages would go through or be returned, and with no other means of communication Noiz’s location was a complete mystery. Koujaku confessed that Aoba had stayed up night after night calling him over and over again, and trying to figure out where he might have gone.

After a few weeks, things seemed to almost settle down. Aoba still wondered where Noiz was every single day. But Sei, Koujaku, and even Tae-san all admitted to themselves that he seemed to have started giving up. Aoba seemed to be of the mindset that maybe Noiz would never come back, and in silence everyone else agreed.

Maybe two months after Noiz disappeared, Koujaku blatantly confessed his feelings towards Aoba to him. Aoba was very hesitant to start expressing anything towards Koujaku romantically because he felt almost like he was betraying Noiz, but at the same time the chance of continuing his relationship with Noiz seemed almost nonexistent. So, guilt ridden but feeling like he was out of options where Noiz was concerned, Koujaku and Aoba happily started their relationship.

It had been about two months since then, and Aoba was over at Koujaku’s house more than anything and Sei was left to wonder as well where Noiz had gone. He’d been fond of Noiz - well, maybe that was a bit of an over statement. Sei felt partially indebted to Noiz, considering without him Sei wouldn’t have had the strength or the stamina to disable security and Aoba wouldn’t have had the means or the manpower to carry Sei out of the tower.

Without Noiz, Sei would probably be dead.

And this was a bit of an over-simplification, Sei knew, but it was still the truth. Sei had been sure to thank Noiz for his efforts at the tower but he’d brushed it off with a “I wasn’t going to do nothing, I guess,” which Sei figured was as close to a “you’re welcome” as he would get. Still, Sei made an effort to speak to Noiz on the occasion that he had time and strength to leave his room, and they’d chatted a few times in the hospital. It was strange to imagine that he’d just vanished off the face of the planet completely.

“Hello, earth to Sei,” Mizuki said, and Sei snapped out of his monologue, realizing he’d been sitting with chopsticks halfway to his mouth for who knew how long.

“Oh, yes, sorry,” he said. Once he took a small bite of food he realized how famished he was and began eating hungrily.

“Anyway,” Mizuki continued. “I was wondering if you would be free tomorrow. Dry Juice is having a party at my place and I think Aoba and Koujaku are coming. Tae-san, you can come too.”

“Very funny,” she said. Mizuki seemed to have given his offer for her attendance an inflection of sarcasm.  “I don’t go to parties.”

“Ah, but I’m sure everyone would love your donuts,” Mizuki added.

“Donuts, donuts!” She cried, standing and taking her and Mizuki’s empty bowls to the sink. “All you people come here for is food, between you and Koujaku all I’ll have left is white rice and stale noodles.”

Sei chuckled at Tae’s scolding and Mizuki rolled his eyes.

“So what do you say?”

“I’d love to come,” Sei said, finishing his food. “I’ll let Aoba know so he doesn’t leave without me.”

“Awesome,” Mizuki said with a smile, and stood to leave. “I had better be going, then, I’ve got some things to do with my team before tomorrow.”

“Ah, Mizuki-san, there was some restriction on some of the back roads earlier today due to an accident during a Rhyme battle,” Sei said, thinking of his walk home from the bookstore that afternoon. “I think they sectioned off a few small areas.”

“Oh really?” Mizuki asked , surprised. “I didn’t see anything on the way here. But thanks for the heads up.”

Sei nodded in response and Mizuki pulled his jacket off the back of the chair, slipping it on and heading for the door.

“Thanks for the food, Tae-san,” He said over his shoulder. “See you, Sei.”

Tae-san and Sei waved him off as the door closed behind him. Once he was gone, Tae stood and headed towards the sink.

“Aoba need to get in control of his friends,” She said. “Coming here and eating all the food. There’ll be none left!”

“It’s alright,” Sei said, looking down at his still half full bowl and thinking he definitely couldn’t finish. “I don’t eat much anyway.”

“And that’s another thing! You need to eat more, I don’t want you to get sick. “

“I’ll be fine, Tae-san,” Sei said soothingly, standing gna taking his dishes to the sink. “But I appreciate your concern.”

Tae held her hands up in defeat.

“If you get hungry later, the leftovers will be in the fridge,” She said as she rolled up her sleeves and started washing the dishes.

“Thank you, I’ll keep them in mind,” Sei said, and exited the room. Heading back upstairs, he picked up one of the books lying on the landing and carried it up to his room, setting it on the edge of his dresser in the hopes it would be next in line to read. Sei resumed his place on his bed, reading at a steady pace and only having to look up a few words on his coil. Tae came upstairs not too long later to wish him good night and remind him not to stay up too late, to which Sei replied with a thanks for her concern and a good night in return. Sei continued reading, hearing the clock tick by the minutes. He considered waiting up for Aoba to return home but there was no guarantee that he wouldn’t be home until tomorrow anyway, and decided against it. However he did want to go down and turn on the porch light in case Aoba happened to come home now that it was dark.

Using the light from the screen of his coil to guide his way down the dark stairs and through the living room, Sei nearly made it the light switch by the front door when he heard a knock on it’s opposite side. Hesitating for a moment, wondering what someone would be doing here this late, he thought it may be Aoba who’d forgotten his key. Sei turned on the light and unlocked the door, opening it just a few inches to peek outside before suddenly throwing the door open in surprise towards whom it was standing outside.

“Sei,” he said, blonde hair slightly damp with a light rain that had started falling. He was wearing a suit, the dark green fitted jacket specked with drops of rain and his tie slightly rumpled.

Sei stepped back, his jaw slack with surprise.

“Noiz?”

 


End file.
